Heineken buys Globe Pub Company to salvage contracts – For more hospitality stories, see what the weekend papers say

Heineken buys Globe Pub Company to salvage contracts
Dutch brewer Heineken has bought the 421-strong Globe Pub Company from receivership Read the full article in the Daily Telegraph >>
Masterchef to keep endangered fish off menus after row over eels
The BBC has promised to consider the endangered fish list in future episodes of MasterChef after a recent programme that required three chefs to prepare two dishes containing smoked eel provoked a storm of protest from conservationists. Stocks of young European eels have slumped by 99% since the 1980s and the fish is now on the ‘red list’ of creatures that are just a step away from extinction, alongside pandas and tigers. Elvers only breed when they are nine years old and will not reproduce in captivity, so even the fish farms favoured by many restaurants are controversial as they depend upon juveniles taken from the wild. Both Greenpeace and the Marine Conservation criticised the MasterChef menus as irresponsible while Chris Dennison, a former general-secretary of the Eel Study Group, said it was time for eels to "come off all menus". He said: " We export about 250 tonnes of eel from the UK every year, and it takes about 3,500 individual eels to make a kilo of meat, so you can see the size of the problem we have," he said. â€" 1 November, Read the full article in the Observer >>
John Burton Race arrested for drink driving
Celebrity John Burton Race has been charged with drink driving and resisting arrest following a routine police check near his Michelin-starred restaurant in Dartmouth, Devon. The TV chef, who was declared bankrupt last year after divorcing his wife in a multi-million settlement, will appear before South Devon magistrates in Torquay on 17 November. “John Burton Race, 52, was arrested on October 30 at about 1am. He has been charged with driving or attempting to drive with excess alcohol and resisting or obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty,” said a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police. â€" 1 November, Read the full article in the Sunday Express >>

Jongleurs founder to relaunch the comedy club chain Maria Kempinska , the founder of Jongleurs comedy clubs, is looking for new sites in Newcastle, Liverpool and Brighton to relaunch the chain after regaining full control of the brand. The name had been licensed by Regent Inns, whose sale last week via a pre-pack administration triggered a change-of-control clause. Kempinska, who established the first Jongleurs club in a Battersea pub owned by Regent Inns, said the new clubs would be “more adventurous, more creative and more spontaneous” than the Regent operations. Intertain, the vehicle set up to buy most of Regent’s venues, will continue to use the Jongleurs name until 2 January 2010 and then relaunch the clubs under a new brand. Intertain chief executive John Leslie said the Jongleurs licence held by Regent had been quite restrictive and that the changes allowed it to revamp the clubs and source its own acts. 30 October, Read the full article in TheTimes >>
Kerzner still hopes to open super- casino in London's O2 Arena
Casino magnate Sol Kerzner still hopes to get the go-ahead to build a £200m super-casino and hotel at London'’ former Millennium Dome. He expressed his hope that the Government would reconsider its block on the development within the next year or two at the opening of the £250m Mazagan hotel and casino in Casablanca, Morocco. Mazagan is Kerzner International’s third resort to open in 12 months, following the casino-less Atlantis in Dubai and One & Only in South Africa. However, Kerzner has put on hold plans to open One & Only hotels in Dubai, Zanzibar and Bangkok, along with its first casino in Las Vegas. â€" 31 October, Read the full article in the Sunday Telegraph >>
World’s largest, greenest cruise ship sets sail
The world’s largest, greenest cruise ship â€" which has been described as a “motorised, buoyant seaside resort” - last night left its birthplace in Finland to pick up its first passengers in Florida. The Royal Caribbean’s flagship Oasis of the Seas is five times bigger than the Titanic, three times larger than the QE2 and 40% bigger than any other cruise ship. The 20-storey, 1,180-ft-long, 225,282-ton leviathan can carry 6,300 guests and 2,100 crew members. Facilities include a 750-seat outdoor aquatic amphitheatre, an ice rink, a golf course, a 1,300-seat indoor theatre, volleyball and basketball courts, assorted swimming pools and seven themed "neighbourhoods". Despite its bulk, it consumers 25% less power than smaller liners, reuses waste water and discharges no sewage into the sea. â€" 1 November, Read the full article in the Independent on Sunday >> Council dictates colour on repainted pink hotel
Work on a seaside hotel that was ordered by the local council to cover up pink paintwork is being delayed, say the owners, because the council insists on approving the shade of white paint used. The Oasis hotel on the Llandudno seafront fell foul of guidelines in May 2008 when windows and pillars at the front were painted a "vibrant, deep pink", prompting a complaint from Mostyn Estates, which holds the freehold for much of the land on the promenade. The hotel owners, Ann and David Blanchard, lost an appeal after battling with officials for nearly a year. But Ann says work has been delayed because the council ordered them to replace gloss paint with a matt, then a satin, finish â€" and then insisted on approving the shade of white paint used. She hopes to get final approval for the work this week. 1 November, Read the full article on BBC Online >>
Kraft to make £10.5b hostile bid for Cadbury
Food giant Kraft is expected to table a £10.5b hostile bid for confectioner Cadbury by the end of the week, ahead of the 9 November deadline imposed by the Takeover Panel. Analysts believe Kraft will offer a modest premium on the 745p a share it has already proposed. Cadbury, whose shares closed the week at 770p to value the company at £10.6b, is expected to reject the revised offer. â€" 1 November, Read the full article in the Sunday Times >>

By Angela Frewin

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